The crack of the truck hitting the concrete had my heart shuddering in my chest, and fear clogging my throat.
But just as fast, I started to laugh.
“Now do you feel me when I said it was some Final Destination shit?” I teased my man.
That’s when Adrian started shouting in pain.
“His parents aren’t going to like having to fix that after just having to pay for it to get fixed last time,” I found myself saying.
Malachi shot me an amused smirk. “Drive home. Go get in bed. Let me handle this.”
I gave him a thumb up and did just that.
And I didn’t worry once about whether Adrian would live or die.
It seemed that my give a damn was broken.
CHAPTER 22
Shine on, you batshit crazy diamond.
-Coffee Cup
MALACHI
Sierra,
Today was the worst day of my life.
There are many times that I thought that day had come to pass, but seeing you there, with your body attached to a vehicle by a rope? I learned new levels of terror that my body could be put through.
I swear to all that’s holy, I’ll never, ever let you go again.
I’ll cherish every single day that you’ve been given to me to live on this earth.
I love you with all my heart,
Your Malachi
• • •
Sierra went home. Her brother met her at the entrance of the hospital in his police cruiser.
By now, she was in bed, hopefully snuggled up with a book.
Me?
I was busy watching firefighters try to extricate this stupid piece of shit from his truck.
Not only had he smacked into the pole pretty hard, but the shard of glass that’d fallen? It’d impaled him in the chest.
“Adrian!” the boy’s mother warbled. “Adrian! Oh, my God! Are you okay?”
“Ma’am,” I heard one of the officers say. “Back off. They’re trying to work. They can’t have you yelling and screaming in his ear or something might happen.”
If only.
What would it matter if they slipped and he accidentally died? I knew that I wouldn’t care one fucking bit.
“Oh, God. What happened?” she cried.
Some bystander that’d seen the whole thing go down walked up to the edge where the woman was screeching.
“That crazy man just came out of nowhere and almost ran over a pregnant woman and that cop,” the bystander said, making me smile. “Then, as if in a miracle, the piece of glass broke up there.” He pointed at the top of the building we’d come out of. “And a piece came down and impaled him through the windshield.”
Mrs. Mastings whimpered.
That whimper turned to a cry when Adrian screamed over something the firefighters did.
I grinned.
“My Adrian wouldn’t do that,” Mrs. Mastings implored. “He’s a good boy.”
“Loves his mama?” I grumbled under my breath. “Probably loves Jesus and America, too.”
The cop next to me, Dax, snorted. “Quoting songs now?”
I looked over at him. “Better than telling that bitch that her son’s a piece of shit that I hope dies.”
Dax’s lips turned up at the corners. “He’ll make it out of this, I’m sure. Only the devil has luck like that.”
I agreed with him completely.
“Did you hear that the girl he hit outside our duplexes almost died?” Dax murmured low. “Juniper coded three times last night. She had an air embolism and they were able to save her. Then something else went wrong. And when they were doing emergency surgery on her yesterday around eleven, she coded on the table yet another time.”
I thought of the doctor, Zach, then.
When it’d happened with Juniper, I hadn’t understood. I’d had no idea what he was going through.
Now? Now, I knew exactly what he was going through.
And that slithering cold that was coursing through my veins? The fucking itch to walk over there, jump on top of the crunched-up hood of that truck, and kick that piece of glass that was embedded in his chest? It was a really real thing that I wanted to do.
The sad thing was, as I arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later, the kid was still very, very much alive.
And, apparently, he’d been very, very talkative on his ambulance ride over.
“Did you hear him saying that he wished he would’ve hit her?” one nurse whispered to another. “He said that he hoped ‘that bitch lost her baby.’ That she ‘didn’t deserve to be a mother.’”
I felt my insides clench.
The firefighters, medics, and nurses had done a damn fine job getting him the help he needed, and not once did they shake the piece of glass in his chest.
“He also admitted to running Dr. Caruso’s girlfriend over with his truck. He straight up told the medic to his face as they were pushing him in,” a doctor interjected.
When I arrived at the room after making my way through the long line of nurses and doctors that were looking at the spectacle of the guy who had a three feet wide piece of glass in his chest, it was to find none other than Zach himself working on Adrian.
My entire being stilled, and for one heartbeat in time, I knew that something big was about to happen.
We made eye contact over the table.
The kid that’d been doing the terrorizing of Sierra, also the one who’d confessed to running the girl off the road and nearly killing her before leaving her there to die, was on that table. And he was laughing.
The motherfucker was laughing that he’d finally gotten caught.
He was a spoiled little asshole, and he had no fucking clue that the doctor working on him was also the doctor that was in love with the girl he hit.
He had no clue that, just a few steps away, I was in the end stages of not caring so much, either.
Like, if that scalpel that Zach was holding accidentally slipped, my heart wouldn’t be broken in the least. I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep. I’d still feel like a thousand bucks, actually.
Zach’s hand twitched as he carefully pulled a piece of glass out of Adrian Mastings’ face.
They were waiting for a surgery room to open up. After the terror that Adrian had caused in the hospital parking lot, there’d been no one in a hurry to get him into the operating room. Though, as luck would have it, before Adrian had arrived, a couple driving their van of six kids had been struck on the interstate, almost all of the children had needed surgery, meaning all of the ORs were full.
Sadly, for Adrian, he’d have to wait his turn. As long as they kept him still, the piece of glass in his chest hopefully wouldn’t pierce his heart.
I kind of hope that they didn’t bother to keep him still.
I kind of hoped that Zach shook him like the ragdoll that he was.
I sure the fuck couldn’t do it. Not with all of these witnesses. I’d never be able to get out of here without looking like I was guilty.
Something like understanding crossed over Zach’s eyes, and in the next moment, I knew what he was going to do.
I turned away so that I could honestly say ‘no, I wasn’t watching him at the time that the murder happened.’
A nurse who was in the doorway of the trauma room we were all gathering around gasped, and my eyes went to her.
“Oh, fucking shit,” she said as she watched with wide, almost unbelieving eyes.
The monitors went absolutely wild.
Everyone in the room started to panic.
And there were quite a few ‘oh, my God’s Dr. Caruso, what did you just do?’
I fucking smiled.
• • •
I walked out of that fucking hospital with a goddamn pep in my step.
There was a tad bit of guilt there, yes. But what there was also was an understanding.
Zach did it not for me, but for his girl.
And he was a better man than I was.
My phone rang in my p
ocket just as I was walking out of the hospital doors, a fucking smile on my face, when an unknown number flashed across the screen.
I frowned hard at it.
“Hello?” I answered, wondering who it could be.
Nobody called me anymore.
The only thing I ever got was a text because they knew I wouldn’t answer. And honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what made me answer this particular one.
“Is this Mr. Stokes?”
My stomach clenched at the mention of my old name.
Narrowing my eyes I answered, “Yes. This is him.”
“Oh,” the man murmured. “Good. Good. This is the fourth number we’ve called for you. This is Theodore Rossilini. I’m the vice president of Cryo-Fertility Bank in Longview, Texas.”
I felt my stomach clench.
I hadn’t thought about that place since before my last deployment.
“Yes?” I said, unsure what I was supposed to say to his announcement.
“I just want to inform you of a potential mix-up.” The person on the other end of the line paused. “Your sperm was used to artificially inseminate a young woman looking for your specific features. There was a glitch in the system, and your frozen sperm was listed improperly for about thirty-six hours. In that time, it was found, purchased, and sent out. I’m so, so sorry.”
“So are you saying that I have a kid on the way?” I asked carefully, something close to ferocity coursing through my veins at the thought.
The man on the other end of the line audibly swallowed. “Possibly.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
He cleared his throat, unsure of whether or not he wanted to admit what he was about to admit.
“Um,” he coughed. “Well, I’m not sure we can give this information—”
“You just told me I could potentially have a child running around out there,” I interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I think the rules are going to have to be broken. The only question is are they going to be broken now or later?”
The moment that he told me the name of the lady purchasing my sperm? I nearly fell flat the fuck out.
Not only was the lady close, in Kilgore as a matter of fact, but she was also someone I knew.
• • •
“I’m sorry, but what?” Sierra asked, blinking rapidly.
I recounted the phone call, word for fucking word, and told her everything that the man had said.
“You’re…” She paused. “I’m…” She shook her head, her mouth open wide in shock. “I actually am pregnant with your baby?”
The words ‘for now’ didn’t fall out of her lips, but they might as well have.
“Yes,” I replied softly. “I think so.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want to lose your baby.”
CHAPTER 23
That’s a lovely shade of ‘fuck you’ you’re wearing.
-Malachi to Sierra
SIERRA
Six weeks later
Sierra,
Let’s get married tomorrow. I know a guy.
Malachi
• • •
“Do you really think this is the best idea?” I asked warily as we waited outside the judge’s chambers.
Malachi looked over at me with a small grin on his face.
“I think it’s a great idea,” he informed me. “Why, don’t you?”
I did, but…
“My parents might kill me,” I admitted.
“We sent them a text.” He shrugged. “It’s not my fault if they don’t get here in time.”
“I know.” I grinned wide. “But my dad’s gonna want to walk me down the aisle.”
“Damn right I am,” Dad said as he jogged up.
He was dressed in his police uniform, and looked like he had bloodstains on his knees.
“What happened to you?” I asked curiously, eyeing him up and down.
Dad shrugged. “Guy thought it would be a great idea to run from me. Thought he could take me. He was wrong.”
“You showed him how wrong he was, right?” Malachi joked.
“Right,” Dad confirmed. “Where’s your mom?”
“I’m right here!” Mom cried as she ran in hand-in-hand with Hastings.
Hastings grinned widely at me.
“Where’s your brother and sister?” Mercy asked me.
I looked around the empty hallway. “I don’t know. Were they supposed to be here already?”
“I’m right here,” Sammy said as he came out of the bathroom. “Had to take a shit. Couldn’t make it through my sister getting married with a turtle head poking out.”
There was a long moment of silence as everyone processed his words.
“You know,” Hastings said, amusement in her tone. “There are things that you should and shouldn’t say, and I think that was one of them.”
Sammy shrugged unrepentantly. “It is what it is.”
I guess it was.
It wasn’t the first time something vulgar had come out of his mouth, and it wouldn’t be the last.
When he was hurt last month, I thought I’d lost him. Hell, for a few days, I actually had.
And I never wanted to experience that kind of pain again.
So I’d take him, turtle heads and all.
“Everyone poops,” Sammy said. “Now, we ready?”
Just as he asked that, the judge’s doors opened and a judge that I’d never expected to see poked her head out.
“You ready, girl?” my friend, Caro, asked.
My mouth all but fell open.
“Caro?” I gasped. “What in the absolute hell are you doing in those robes?”
Caro, one of the SWAT kids that I’d grown up with, smiled at me huge.
I hadn’t seen her since Christmas of last year when she’d gone back to Austin to finish her job up with a law firm there.
“I’m a judge now.” She twirled herself around. “There was a vacancy, and I filled it.” Her eyes went to Malachi and then back to me. “You’re the one getting married to this sweet guy?”
My face tilted in Malachi’s direction. “Yes.”
“Well, let’s do it, girl.” Caro gestured for me to follow her in.
Ten minutes later, I was Mrs. Malachi Gabriel Gnocchi.
• • •
“You seriously want to go to a buffet on your wedding day?” Sammy asked, looking at the buffet in disgust.
I walked right past him, picked up my plate, and started to fill it with Chinese food.
I didn’t stop until it was heaping.
Yesterday I’d gotten off of bed rest.
Today, I was officially fourteen weeks and four days pregnant.
And to top it off, I had the results from the test in my pocket that would tell me whether Malachi and I were having a boy or a girl.
I pulled the envelope out of my jeans and shook it at Hastings.
Hastings pulled hers out of her purse.
We handed them to my parents. Mine to my dad, hers to my mom.
“Okay, open those up,” I ordered.
Hastings had actually known hers about two weeks ago, but I’d begged her to wait until we could both have the information at the same time.
The last few weeks had definitely not been easy for me. In fact, they’d been quite scary.
Day after day, appointment after appointment, I’d wondered if this would be the day that I went to the doctor and they told me that the baby didn’t have a heartbeat.
And knowing that it was Malachi’s baby? That somehow made it just that much worse.
But somehow, someway, our little nugget had held on.
And today, I was officially released to be out in the world again. To return to work.
I no longer had any bruises from what Adrian had done to me. But, saying that, I still had nightmares, and I still woke up screaming. Sometimes in Malachi’s arms, and sometimes with Malachi’s pillow buried against my face when he was working late.
But I was gett
ing better, one day at a time.
And now I had the sex of my baby in the card that my dad was not-so-delicately ripping open.
“What is it?” Blue asked curiously.
I looked over at Sammy to see his plate heaping just as high as mine and Hastings’. For someone that didn’t want to eat here, he sure did have a lot of food on his plate.
My dad scanned the paper as did my mom, and I smiled wide when they both paused mid-lip read.
“It’s a girl?” my mom said at the same time that my dad said, “It’s a boy.”
Malachi froze, as did Sammy.
“I’m going to have a motherfuckin’ girl?” Sammy bellowed. “What the hell am I going to do with a girl? They have vaginas and can get pregnant!”
Malachi’s hand met the side of my head, and he pulled me into him.
I could practically feel his excitement vibrating his entire body.
“You’re going to treat her like the cherished little jewel that she is,” Grans said, coming back to the table with two plates. “Girls can do anything boys can do. And if you teach her right, maybe she’ll grow up to be half the woman that your sister is.”
Sammy looked at me in disgust. “That’s what I’m afraid of. She’s pregnant. Case closed.”
“Your sister is an adult, you dipweed,” Grans said. “Now, are you going to eat that rat on a stick? I was going to get some, but you cleaned them out.”
Malachi’s hand stayed wrapped around me all throughout dinner, and it was only as we were walking outside that it slipped, but only long enough to catch the door.
“Hey,” Sammy said as we made our way to the cars. “Did you hear about Zach?”
We all stopped in the middle of the parking lot.
“What about him?” I asked, worry starting to ripple my guts.
Malachi had told me what happened.
And I secretly hoped that Zach didn’t lose his license or have any lasting consequences. But I knew that wasn’t possible.
The sad thing was, Juniper was still in a freakin’ coma.
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